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January 30, 2018

26 ways to success - W for Waiting - " They Also Serve Those Who Stand And Wait" article published in The Hans India on 8th July 2016

W
for Waiting

They Also Serve Those Who Stand And Wait

In the era of instant gratification,
waiting is a strange word. No-one wants to wait. Everyone is on the speed trip
and living life in the fast lane. Things are instantly available and on tap. In
the earlier days we had to go to the shop to buy things. Now we can buy
anywhere, anything, at any time. This is leading to a generation of jaded
people who lack the simple pleasures of life. John Milton had very famously said
“They also serve those who stand and wait”.

We are captivated by successful
people who made it big and tend to treat ourselves with utter contempt and
disdain. It is as if we are not worthy in our own eyes. But that is not true.
Like Milton has said each one of us has a purpose in this world and it is up to
ourselves to live up to our true potential. Success comes to some in a jiffy
and many others will have to wait for it to come after many attempts and failures.
Vinod Kambli had once said “Sachin Tendulkar had it lucky. He took an elevator
to success. Ordinary mortals like me have to arduously climb the stairs
laboriously to reach the top”

“Bhagwanke ghar mey der
hai,andher nahi”. There can be delay in god's home but there is
no scope for darkness. All is fair in life even if there are slight delays.
What has to be given to us will be given. We need to be patient and willing to
wait.

My Dad is a civil engineer
and our family spent seven wonderful years in Nagarjunasagar, Andhra Pradesh
from 1967 to 1975. I and my sisters had an idyllic childhood full of
excitement, self-learning and innocence. There were lots of time spend in waiting
for things to happen. During that time waiting was a virtue in itself. Things
would not happen automatically like they do now. We needed to have patience and
had to imagine a lot.

Even today the most
creative people in the world are ferocious book readers. Book reading is a
creative process. We has to imagine things as we read along. And every one’s
imagination is unique. That is sole reason why each book reader relishes the
book differently from everyone else. Contrast it with Television. Television is
a one-dimensional media and we have to view things from the director’s
perspective only. There is no scope for imagination.
No wonder, Television is called an idiots’ box!

The waiting made the
things sweeter and more excitable. We used to wait with baited breath for the
English newspaper to arrive in the afternoon. There was no TV and radio telecasts
were irregular and rudimentary. The habit of daily newspaper reading has stood
me in good stead in the decades to come. We also waited for the arrival of the Children’s
monthly magazine “Chandamama”. We were at tender hooks when the
other sibling was reading the elusive and once on a month available wonder -
Chandamama.

Watching a movie was
an experience in itself. We used to debate and argue about the best movie to watch.
We had to wait for an entire month and it was critical that we did not make a
wrong movie choice. Contrast that with the more than 100 movies that one can
watch today, on the television, computer, laptop and even in our mobiles. No
wonder the present generation is so blasé and callous about the craft of movie
making. They have too much choice and they don’t need to wait. I have noticed viewers who continuously text
and chat in a theatre even when they are watching a tense and suspense filled scene.
Waiting for something is very important to understand its true value.

1978 was the year when
Television was telecast for the first time in Hyderabad. Programming was
limited to one hour per day. Most of the programmes telecast were insipid and colorless.
But the waiting made the viewing worth it. We used to wait with anticipation
for the rotating rings of the Doordarshan to appear on the TV set. The
wonderful world of entertainment was about to unfold itself in front of our
unbelieving eyes.

Venkat Ramana Colony,
Khairatabad had only 4 black and white TVs and I vividly remember pleading and beseeching
a TV owner along with many of my friends to put his Black and white TV out in
the portico for all the colony kids to watch and enjoy the Sunday evening movie,
the only one that would be telecast in a week. The waiting for the movie made
it all worth, never mind sitting on the uncomfortable road temporarily converted
into an impromptu TV viewing arena. Sterling examples of famous people who tasted
success after lot of waiting.

Colonel Sanders: was
an American businessman, best known for the fast food chicken restaurant chain Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC). His name
and image are still symbols of the company.

Sanders
held a number of jobs in his early life; He began selling Fried chicken during the Great American Depression in the 1930s. Sanders
recognized the potential of the restaurant franchising
concept, and the first KFC franchise opened in Utah in 1952. He was 62
years old at that time. In the era of modern entrepreneurs most of whom are in
early twenties, this might come as a big shock. Colonel Sanders waited till his
retirement to start one of the biggest fast food businesses in the world.

Erle Stanley Gardner: The creator of Perry Mason is one
of the most loved, popular and admired mystery writers of the world. Gardner
has been dead for many years but his books are still being purchased, even today.
There is only one mystery writer who sells even better than Gardner himself,
the impeccable Agatha Christie.

Erle Stanley Gardner was a successful criminal lawyer. It is said that
he never lost a case. But he got bored with his criminal practice. Gardner had tried other jobs and had some success in sales.
In 1921, he started writing fiction. Gardner
had a draw full of rejection slips (publishing companies rejecting his works) before
he finally sold a short story called "The Shrieking Skeleton" to
Black Mask Magazine in 1923. He had to wait for two years before his first
story got published.

It was in
1933 that Erle Stanley Gardner’s first novel “The case of the Velvet claws” was
published, a good 12 years after he started to write. If Erle Stanley Gardner had
not waited for 12 years to publish his novels, millions of readers would have
missed the pleasure of reading his numerous suspense filled and extremely knowledgeable
novels. Even today Erle Stanley Garner’s Perry Mason series remain a must read
for all aspiring law students. Perry Mason novels dramatically demonstrate how
criminal lawyers have to study available evidence and build a strong case and argue
persuasively to win first the confidence of the presiding judge and finally the
case itself. Why do we need to develop the ability to wait? The following
reasons might clear our mental cobwebs,

1.Waiting brings
increased pleasure:
When we wait for things to happen, there is anticipation and excitement. Waiting
means more pleasure. That is the sole reason why parents keep harping on the point
“you would know the pleasure of the purchase only if you had bought it with
your own money”. If we were to buy even a pair of shoes with our own money we would
know its value. In earlier days buying a house or a car was once in a life time
event. As people waited for an entire life they derived more pleasure from its possession
and usage.

2.Waiting brings
self-control:
Too much of anything could be self-destructive. Waiting would entail exercising
tremendous self-control. As the things that we want are not available, that need
has to be postponed. A Zen zone has to
be created. A Zen zone is a zone where abstinence itself becomes an integral part
of life.

3.Waiting helps us
manage with less:
When we have to wait for a thing, even small quantities can bring in great
pleasure. For a person who is starving even a small piece of bread is a mannah from
the heaven. For a person who is strictly not eating sweets a small glass of
sweetened orange juice itself would taste as sweet as a Gulab Jamoon!

4.Waiting will make us
treat things better:
As we are getting things after lot of waiting we would treat things with more respect
and would tend to make them last longer. Check with your parents. They might still
be wearing the HMT watch that they must have bought 3 or 4 decades ago!

5.Waiting allows us
guilt free enjoyment:
We have started to love debt. Most people have multiple debit and credit cards
and we blow money as if there is no tomorrow. But even the most free spending
people are sometimes filled with guilt. Guilt of buying something on credit, which
they have to repay through their noses. But if we wait, plan the budget and buy
things carefully, without credit, we can enjoy the product usage without any
feeling of guilt.

6.Waiting lets us feel
and experience life more deeply: we don’t understand something unless we
experience it. Fasting is advocated in all religion as a penance so that we can
understand the pangs of hunger. Waiting to eat when our stomach is crying for nourishment
and nutrition is the best way to connect with the poor of the world.

7.It
is as much about the journey as it is about the destination: The most important
thing about an event is the waiting for the event to unfold. The marriage
ceremony or the foreign country trip would get finished in a flash but the excitement,
the waiting and the anticipation of the event makes the event more memorable
and linger on for a life time. The journey is as exciting as the destination
itself.

8.Waiting
increases Strength and discipline: Waiting makes people stronger. Ramayana
and Mahabharata our epic puranas are both about waiting. The heir apparent in
both cases had to wait for 14 and 13 long years respectively before they were anointed
as kings. They had to wait and understand the problems of the common man before
they could rule. If something is achieved after pain and waiting it would be treasured
for a long time.

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Dr.M. Anil Ramesh is an M.B.A, PhD from Osmania University, (overall 7th rank, 1st In Marketing stream), Hyderabad, India.
Presently Dr.M.Anil Ramesh is working as Director at Siva Sivani Institute of Management a Premier B-School based at Secunderabad, Telangana State.
Dr.M.Anil Ramesh has 30 years of experience both in Industry and in Academics. Widely read and traveled Dr.M.Anil Ramesh is a Management expert who appeared on many TV talks and shows. Dr.M.Anil Ramesh also writes a popular column in a popular English Daily Newspaper - HANS India.
The views expressed by the author in this blog are his own and do not necessarily represent the views of the institute where he works.
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